page_title: Ryan Rowland-Smith
section_title: 2008 season
hierarchical_section_title: Ryan Rowland-Smith / Career / 2008 season
caption_attribution_description: Ryan Rowland-Smith
context_page_description: Ryan Benjamin Rowland-Smith is an Australian former professional baseball pitcher. He previously played in Major League Baseball for the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. Rowland-Smith also represented Australia in the World Baseball Classic three times and in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
  Born in Sydney, Rowland-Smith grew up watching MLB games on videocassette. Signed out of high school by the Seattle Mariners, he spent the next several years pitching for their minor league teams. Promoted to Seattle for the first time in July 2007, he struck out the first batter he faced, former Mariners' star Ken Griffey, Jr.. Rowland-Smith began 2008 as a relief pitcher for the Mariners but was sent to the minor leagues briefly in July to work on becoming a starting pitcher. He rejoined the team in August and remained in their starting rotation the rest of the year. In 2009, he made one start for the Mariners at the beginning of the year before going on the disabled list with triceps tendinitis. Rejoining the team in July, he completed the eighth inning in three of his remaining starts for Seattle.
context_section_description: Rowland-Smith began the season exclusively as a reliever, making 32 relief appearances before making two starts prior to the All-Star break. He collected his first save April 8 against the Tampa Bay Rays in Seattle's 6–5 win, tossing ​1 ²⁄₃ innings and retiring all five batters he faced while protecting one-run lead. His first Major League start came 1 July against the Toronto Blue Jays; Rowland-Smith threw three scoreless innings before getting replaced by Roy Corcoran with two outs in the fourth inning after allowing three runs that inning. The Mariners rallied to win 7–6. He made three more relief appearances before being optioned to Tacoma on 20 July to be converted to a starting pitcher. He went 2–0 with a 2.89 ERA in three starts for the Rainiers, holding opponents to a .185 batting average before joining Seattle's rotation on 9 August. From 21 August until the end of the season, he posted a 2.56 ERA. Against the Oakland Athletics on 21 August, he took the loss but held the team to four hits in seven innings, keeping Oakland scoreless except for a solo home run by Emil Brown. He faced Oakland again in his final start of the year on 27 September, allowing three runs in ​6 ²⁄₃ innings this time but picking up the win in a 7–3 victory. In 47 games (12 starts) with the Mariners in 2008, he had a 5–3 record, a 3.42 ERA, 77 strikeouts, and 114 hits allowed in ​118 ¹⁄₃ innings.
caption: Rowland-Smith pitching against the Oakland Athletics.
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